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Joe Henderson: HD 58 race follows negative game plan

There is a game plan, oft-repeated in politics, that says going negative beats a reasoned argument almost every time. We are seeing that play out again in the HD 58 race for the Republican nomination, where mailboxes are being filled with fliers calling Yvonne Fry a closet liberal in Republican clothes.

The primary election to succeed former state Rep. Dan Raulerson is Oct. 10, although early voting has begun. Raulerson, who resigned for health reasons, supports Fry and has donated to her campaign. The primary winner will be favored in December’s general election.

Raulerson had said he would remain neutral, but wryly noted he made that statement when he was still a member of the House.

“I’m a private citizen now,” he said.

The attacks don’t have to be accurate; they just to be attacks, and that appears to be the script here.

Take this for instance: Although she has never been elected to public office, Fry is still mocked in the mailers as a “political insider” because she served on many boards and civic groups in the Plant City area and racked up multiple endorsements. She also is a small business owner, but targeted on that by leaked smears that don’t pass the smell test.

Because she supported a plan that would have put a transportation referendum on the ballot, she is said to be pushing for the largest tax increase in Hillsborough County history. Except, well, that referendum plan never made it to the ballot, and it would be up to the voters anyway.

“I never imagined it would be like this, no,” she told me during a chat last week. “I feel like they’re in a place of desperation. I have heard from so many people who are disgusted by what they are doing.”

The “they” Fry refers to apparently are supporters of her opponent, Lawrence McClure. One mailer says Fry has “joined the ranks of Obama, Clinton and Pelosi in declaring war on the Second Amendment.”

Fry says she has been meeting with groups and knocking on doors throughout the district, which covers Plant City and runs into Temple Terrace and the University of South Florida area.

She called the attacks “insulting.”

“I didn’t expect this,” she said. “I met McClure before the race and he assured me he would not go negative.”

The mailers have not come directly from McClure.

The mailers could be a major factor because turnouts traditionally are small in these types of elections. A few votes either way could swing this. While Fry is popular and well-known in Plant City, it’s a bit of a mystery how the USF and Temple Terrace area sees her.

Joe Henderson has had a 45-year career in newspapers, including the last nearly 42 years at The Tampa Tribune. He covered a large variety of things, primarily in sports but also including hard news. The two intertwined in the decade-long search to bring Major League Baseball to the area. Henderson was also City Hall reporter for two years and covered all sides of the sales tax issue that ultimately led to the construction of Raymond James Stadium. He served as a full-time sports columnist for about 10 years before moving to the metro news columnist for the last 4 ½ years. Henderson has numerous local, state and national writing awards. He has been married to his wife, Elaine, for nearly 35 years and has two grown sons – Ben and Patrick.